John 9:13-17

“Seeing is Believing…Sometimes”

One of the great parts of being and uncle is getting my nieces and nephews riled up…only to leave and let their parents deal with the aftermath.  How many of you have done that to kids before?  Isn’t it great?

Just a couple of weeks ago my nephews Jakob and Isak moved into their new bedroom at their house.  Isak was so excited about his new room, so I couldn’t resist telling him that I had bought the room from his father and that it was now my room.  Obviously, he revolted against the idea.  But I took out my wallet and gave his father some money right in front of him and said, “See, Isak?  I just bought it.”  He couldn’t believe it.  For the next half hour, he told me over and over again that it wasn’t my room, even though I continued to point to the money that I had given his father.  Because I’m such a caring uncle, though, I said I would let him stay there a month for free before he had to get his things out of the room.  But he continued to try to convince himself that it was in fact his room even though he saw that I “paid” for the room.   At one point he looked at his father and said, “Dad, will you explain it to him?”  After I pestered him long enough, I eventually told Isak that I was just kidding and that it was his room…for now.

I’m sure we all know what it’s like to see something that for some reason or another we can’t or don’t want to believe.  In many cases, we are right in not actually believing most of the things that we’re told because this world, the media, politicians, coworkers, acquaintances, crazy uncles all tend to tell us tall tales pretty frequently.  So to be discerning is a good thing.  But what about the times when we don’t believe something even when there is evidence right in front of our eyes?  Why are there some things that we just can’t believe?  More specifically, why is it so hard to believe Jesus?